4.  The applicants were born in 1948, 1939, 1946, 1973 and 1941 respectively. The first applicant, Mr Fulvio Rossi, lives in Turin, while the other applicants live in Naples.
5.  The applicants inherited a plot of land in Crispano. The land in issue – of a surface area of 8,950 square metres – was recorded in the land register as Folio no. 2, Parcel no. 44.
6.  On 9 February 1982 the Mayor of Crispano issued a decree authorising the Municipality to take possession, through an expedited procedure and on the basis of a public-interest declaration, of 416 square metres of the applicants’ land in order to begin the construction of a road.
7.  On 23 March 1982 the authorities took physical possession of the land.
8.  By a writ served on 30 May 1990, the applicants brought an action for damages against the Crispano Municipality in the Naples District Court. They alleged that the occupation of the land was illegal and that the construction work had been completed without there having been a formal expropriation of the land and payment of compensation. They claimed a sum corresponding to the market value of the land and a further sum in damages for the loss of enjoyment of the land, both during the periods of lawful and unlawful occupation. Lastly, the applicants claimed compensation for the demolition of buildings and the destruction of crops present on the land.
9.  On an unspecified date the court ordered an expert valuation of the land. In a report submitted on 5 November 1996 the expert concluded that the market value of the land on the date of its irreversible alteration, which he identified as having occurred in 1987, corresponded to 73,682 Italian lire (ITL) per square metre (38.054 euros (EUR)).
10.  By a judgment delivered on 31 May 2000 and filed with the court registry on 12 January 2001, the Naples District Court declared that the possession of the land, which had been initially authorised, had become unlawful as of 23 March 1990. It found that the land had been irreversibly transformed by the public works. As a result, in accordance with the constructive-expropriation rule (occupazione acquisitiva or accessione invertita), the applicants had been deprived of their property, by virtue of its irreversible alteration, on the date on which the possession had ceased to be lawful. In the light of those considerations, the court concluded that the applicants were entitled to compensation in consideration for the loss of ownership caused by the unlawful occupation.
11.  The court considered that the land could be classified as building land and that its market value on the date the occupation had become unlawful (23 March 1990) corresponded to ITL 275,000 per square metre (EUR 142.026).
12.  The court held that the applicants were entitled to compensation, calculated in accordance with Law no. 662 of 1996, which had entered into force in the meantime, in the sum of ITL 61,339,393 (equivalent to EUR 31,679.53), to be adjusted for inflation, plus statutory interest.
13.  The court further awarded the applicants ITL 22,305,234 (EUR 11,519.692) as compensation for the damage occasioned by the unavailability of the land during the period from the beginning of the lawful occupation (23 March 1982) until the date of loss of ownership (23 March 1990), as well as 45,400,000 (EUR 23,447.143) as compensation for the demolition of buildings and the destruction of crops present on the land.
14.  On 31 May 2001 the Municipality appealed against the order before the Naples Court of Appeal.
15.  By a judgment of 27 May 2003 the Court of Appeal held that the applicants were entitled to compensation in the sum of EUR 48,899.90 to be adjusted for inflation, plus statutory interest for the loss of ownership caused by the unlawful occupation. The court further awarded EUR 7,090.90 as compensation for the period of lawful occupation from 23 March 1982 to 23 March 1990.
16.  The judgment became final on 31 October 2004.